


I don't understand..

by MontyPink



Series: Shod & The Age of Resistance [2]
Category: The Dark Crystal (1982), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)
Genre: Canon gave me their ideas, I got some of mine, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:40:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25656811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MontyPink/pseuds/MontyPink
Summary: SkekShod has been living in Sami Thicket for thrines now. But when Kylan returns with the spark to light the resistance, everyone is left with making an impossible choice.
Series: Shod & The Age of Resistance [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861855
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	I don't understand..

**Author's Note:**

> SkekShod has a stutter and so do I. His stutter is based on mine! This is loosely based on headcanons and a little of the comic canon.

“Maudra Mera I know you don’t believe and have dismissed my stories as fantasies before… but I urge you to believe me. The skeksis are draining us, I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

All eyes in Sami Thicket were on Kylan. He had returned after a journey that seemed to have started ages ago but was just a mere days. “The one they branded as traitor, Rian.. He has seen it happen. It’s.. We dreamfasted..” He shuddered.

The others looked at him, each other,at Mera and the to Kylan again. Mera looked away, to something far off in the distance. When she had that look, no one knew what she was thinking, not even her own children.

“We cannot sit idly by when they are literally killing us.” Kylan spoke with both fire in his eyes and voice. Yearning to convince the woman who raised him for a large part of his life. But she said nothing.

"I'm standing with Kylan." A voice in the crowd said which was soon joined by others, all sounding in agreement.

"The skeksis have been ordering us around for too long!"

"Why must we give what little we have!?"

"Enough is enough!"

Still their Maudra kept silent, mulling it over. The whole thing in Ha'ar, rumors of a sick Thra.. the death of the All-Maudra.. It was all so much to process. 

Kylan looked at her. If she ordered them to stand down most of the surely would. He did not like her silence in the slightest but kept quiet, not wanting to ruing what he had already achieved. A voice in the crowd broke the silence.

"Let's make sure our local Lord doesn't leave." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm when she said the word Lord. 

First silence.. then again, agreement. 

"He's alone isn't he!?"

"We could do it! He's not that strong!" 

_**"Enough!"** _

Mera's voiced echoed across the square. It was the first time she said anything since Kylan had requested a meeting with her and the people of Sami Thicket. 

"These are uncertain times.. Our All-Maudra died. Our local fauna is getting aggressive. I understand you are scared and confused. But let's not resort to violence. The Spriton are better than that.." Her eyes met a few others in the crowd who all bowed their head or looked away. 

"That will be all."

"But-"

"Kylan. I said that will be all." 

She stood up and entered her own home. The crowd kept looking at the door she vanished through, half expecting her to jump out with a weapon, ready to fight. But she didn't. A small group gathered around Kylan, asking more questions, info and when to strike. Kylan looked at the door for a few moments more before leaving it be. The Maudra would make the right decision. He just knew she would. 

\--

Mera leaned against the hard wood of the door to her house and exhaled loudly, like she had been holding her breath. Deep down she knew Kylan spoke true. No one would be this fired up about a lie. But she had her own relationship with SkekShod. He had been with her mother and her mother before her. He was a bit rude at times and unknowledgeable on a lot of common gelfling traditions and he would get upset if one would mess up his favorite dish; Swamp Water Soup.. But she didn't see him as violent or capable of murder. This was the same Shod would would recoil in fear when she was scolding her sons and he happened to be near. Who went into a cathartic state when a podling cook struck him across the face with a wooden spoon... Surely he would not betray them.. not her.

She collected her thoughts and found some food items and stuffed them in a bag and snuck out the back of her house. If someone saw her they knew not to bother her. Not right now. She entered the bowels of the forest behind her beloved Sami Thicket and found Shod's modest hut. He was never like the others. He was more humble, more honest. He cared for the gelfling and if he was faking it.. he was a damn good actor. Shod barely spoke to anyone but loved the gelfling and their stories. He had even helped the orphaned ones, holding them when they fussed at night and singing them songs in a language Mera had never heard before. True he occasionally borrowed things that were shiny but he wasn't malicious.. 

Her heart was racing. Oh how she wished this was a bad dream.. First the whole ordeal with Seladon and Fara. Now Kylan returns with telltales of draining. Sure the skeksis were old, everyone knew that. But they were different species. All those on Thra aged differently. Them being this old because they stole the very life essence of other living beings was a sickening thought.

Mera stood before the hut with her feet heavy as her heart. She wanted so badly for everything to be normal like it was a few days before… but she needed answers. Being a Maudra meant taking risks and being there for her people. They were looking at her now and she wanted to make them proud.

She knocked and didn’t wait for an answer. Shod looked startled but his fear made room for the warm smile of seeing his familiar friend. Yet today Mera could not return it.

“What do you know about what is going on in the castle?” She asked directly. Better to do it quick- no need to delay the inevitable.

Shod cocked his head, which was his default reaction to most anything. That’s how she knew him, gentle, curious, kind. He could not be responsible for poisoning Thra or killing her kind… It’s not possible.

“N-not much.” Shod played with the edge of his bandana. “N-not really w-welcome there…”

“They have not contacted you..?” The one clad in gold would visit occasionally but he mostly spend his times with Shod. Mera always found his caring a little too fake. She would often wonder what he wanted with Shod as she had never seen a different lord of the crystal bother with him. Even when SkekLach and SkekOk came for the tithes he would hide away, only emerging when he was sure they had left. 

Shod closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, really thinking it over. Mera knew his memory wasn’t all that good and he wasn’t on the best terms with his fellow skeksis. A thing he let slip during a night of drinking together when she was younger. Though he never told her what caused it. But given the evidence about him- it couldn't be good.

“N-no..” He finally said, hints of uncertainty in his voice but convinced enough to say it.

“Then you need to leave.” He blinked in surprise.

“Why?”

“I…” She thought it over. Should she tell him? What would he do? How would he react? Would he keep her here to be captured and drained or would he join her fight? She looked at him from head to toe as memories flooded her mind. How she told him about The Hunter and how he seemed to know something about him. That hint of fear in his eyes and voice. Did he know him? And if he did, was he afraid.. or afraid that the gelfling would find out he knew the Hunter personally. 

Mera kept looking at him. He looked so lost and out of place. He chewed on a small piece of gold as he looked at her, half hoping she would burst out in laughter and this was all just a joke. Did they really fail to clue him on what they were doing in the castle? And if so... why? Shod had been with the Spriton for thrines but only now did she realise just how little she knew of him. 

"Rian." She said simply after a few moments. "The one they call Rian."

He shook his head, his white hair swaying with the movements. "Traitor... G-gelfing told me." He kept looking at her with those piercing eyes but she could not be weak. Not right now. 

“Grab what you can carry and leave.”

“M-mera.. I-“ He looked at her the same way he sons used to look at her when they were childlings, confused, yearning for her to make sense of this mess.

“Treasurer.” Her using his title when she hadn’t done that in trines made him recoil a little.

“Leave Sami Thicket and never return here.”

He opened and closed his beak like he was speaking but no sound came out.

"You are no longer welcome here. Return to your kind in the castle.” Never had he seen her like this. He had known her from the moment she was born but this was a very first.

“I d-don’t… understand.” He stood up and inched closer to her, keeping himself as small as possible but still towering over her. A wave of pity came over her.

The pair looked at each other, pained expressions on both. Mera thought she spotted a tear in the treasurers eyes but perhaps she was looking through her own.

“You will.. Shod.. You will.”

"NO!" His voice was louder than she had ever heard it and it scared her. Mera looked at him, afraid to make a single movement, fearing he may attack. 

"Sssssami Thicket is.... m-my home!" Shod said in a loud voice but he didn't sound angry. He sounded scared. "You c-can't make me l-leave!" He fell onto his knees to make himself even smaller. "M-Mera...| Shod reached out his hand but didn't touch her. "Friends.." 

Her eyes became big and she looked at him. Never had he called her a friend. Sure he had requested that she call him Shod. Not SkekShod.. Not Treasurer. Just Shod. But never ever had he called her a friend. Shod wasn't making this easy on her. Mera sighed and put a hand on his beak. Probably overstepping countless boundaries but neither party cared. 

"Shod. Listen to me." 

He relaxed under her touch and in turn, she did too. She realised that she had never touched him before. Her hands moved up his face. His skin felt rough and soft at the same time. She noticed that he was leaning into her touch with force. Just how lonely have you been all this time, Shod? She thought. It can't be easy being so alone, away from your kind. For a brief moment she entertain that thought, being away from her family to spend her entire life with podlings. Her heart bleed at just the thought.

That feeling made place for guilt, though she could not explain to herself why. Maybe she should have cared for him more. Invited him more.. or asked the other skeksis about their deal with Shod. As Maudra she could at least ask.

In this tender moment she almost forgot why she was here. The story of Kylan... the draining.. the very real threat of him dying should he stay.

"Shod.. You need to leave." Mera was suprised at how calm and firm her own voice was, fearing it would break.

"N..No.. Mera.. Please..." He pushed into her touch now, almost tipping her over.

"Let m-me ssssssstay."

"I can't..." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

He got up and found some items across the room and handed it to her. "You w-want gold?" When she didn't accept it he just dumped it on the ground next to her. "Ssscrolls? I can g-get you ssssscrolls.... need a f-few days.."

Mera looked at him as he darted across the room, looking for something that may change her mind. But telling him Kylan's story would put either her or him in danger. Perhaps both.

"D.. Did I do ssssssomething bad?" Shod said after a few moments of throwing valuables at her feet. "I.. I'm sssssssorry." He kneeled before her again and reached out his neck, wanting so badly for her to touch his face again but she did not.

"I ssssssay things w-without thinking sssssomtimes... ssssssorry.." His eyes were piercing into her soul. He was at the end of his rope.

Before her was a desperate, broken Shod. The Shod she once knew to be caring, gentle and warm was no longer there.

"Shod.. I cannot let you stay. You don't belong here." Mera hated how harsh her words were but she figured it was still better than telling the truth; how some of her people wanted to see him dead. "

Your family is with them, in the palace of the crystal."

He looked away and grinded his teeth. "Mera.. is f-family... SSSSSSSSSpirton... is... family." His words were chipping away at her already broken heart, she had to do something now before it was too late and she would doom him and her both.

Mera looked at the pile of valuables at her feet, stepped over them and started to put some items in a bag, ignoring his soft whimpers and sobs.

Shod barely looked at her and curled his tail around himself for comfort, desperate for touch.

"You must leave before nightfall.." Mera remembered the bag of food she had collected from her home. "This should keep you fed for a while. Go to the palace of the crystal, stay off the roads and do not talk to anyone. Not to any gelfling of any clan... not to the podlings. To no one. Ignore them if they call for you."

"And then... I c-come back?" He looked at her with such hope in his eyes. Seeing him like this, a small sobbing mess curled up in his own tail made her weak but she couldn't let herself fail now.

"I-I... do what you a-ask... then I c-come back! Just like the d-deal I have with Z-zok.. Do what he askssss... Then a reward!"

"No. Shod. You can never return here. Not now, not next thrine.. not never."

He responded with a sigh. His eyes revealed he wanted to fight her some more but his body language revealed he had given up.

Mera reached out and grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet. Without saying another word she started walking, out of his hut, into the woods. Shod's hand firmly in one hand, the pack of food and items in the other.

They walked in absolute silence, except an occasional whimper or sob from the taller one. If this was any other situation this would be quite the sight; a skeksis lord being led by a Gelfling. But this time it was no laughing matter. After a few more minutes of silent walking she stopped.

"Keep going north. You'll reach the castle in a day or two."

"Mera.."

"Shod. No." She raised a single finger. "Enough."

He looked at her then at the sky and back at her.

"You.. You and your p-people... w-were always kind to me.... I-I won't forget." He bowed his head to her and took the pack from her hands.

"I really hope you don't, Shod.. I really hope you don't."


End file.
